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Bobby
Bobby frowned as he began to notice the thing going on between Buck and Eddie, of course, he knew they’d become close friends since Eddie joined the 118, Buck’s not only been close to Eddie but Christopher as well.
But this, this isn’t friendship this is something else, something more intimate.
It was family dinner in the fire station Buck and Bobby had been hard at work helping to make a roast dinner for the family, Athena had brought over her green bean casserole that everyone loved, and Hen had cooked those roast potatoes everyone goes mad for.
Surprisingly Buck cooked everything else with Bobby supervising, everyone found it funny the way Bobby trusted Buck to cook for them all when he’d never relinquished control of a massive family meal like this.
Instead, he plated everything up piling food on people’s plates, they’d usually go family-style and let everyone plate their own food but with a meal this big they wanted to make sure everyone got some of everything.
The first clue Bobby got that Buck and Eddie were maybe a bit closer than he’d originally thought was when Buck tasted the food on the stove, him and Eddie were chatting animatedly about the game they watched last night, Eddie sat on the countertop swinging his legs happily and without pausing in the conversation Eddie reached behind him and grabbed the salt passing it to Buck and without even glancing what it was buck added it to the dish, before tasting it again and looking up to give Eddie a blinding smile.
Eddie returns the blinding smile before Buck calls across the room for Chris who comes rushing over as fast as he could, the kid almost falls on the floor which has everyone who was watching him rise out of there various sitting positions ready to rush over but Buck just scoops him up laughing saying something that had Chris squealing in laughter.
He deposits Chris in his father’s lap standing between Eddie's legs as he does so speaking to them, laughing along at something Eddie whispers into Chris’s ears, Buck gets his spoon again and brings it to Chris’s mouth after blowing on it and offering the smiling child a taste, Chris’s face lights up nodding after he’s tasted it and Bobby has never seen Buck look as happy as he did just then.
Buck starts doing a happy dance drawing the attention of everyone in the station who laugh but go back to their own conversations everyone accepts Bobby that is that thinks maybe just maybe they’d make a happy couple.
He wasn’t going to get involved in it, it’s not his place, and if he did get involved he’d have to make them sign the forms, and he really doesn’t want to put that kind of pressure on the pair if there really is something going on, he’ll wait and pretend he doesn’t know until they decide it’s time to tell him or everyone.
“Alright grubs up” Buck shouts he’s finished testing the temperature of the turkey and honestly Bobby had been too busy focusing on their relationship to notice that he’d pulled the thing out the oven and it looks better than any turkey he’s ever made, he just smiles hopefully it’s not dry like the first turkey he ever made was.
“I’ll plate,” Bobby says shaking himself out of his wondering and makes his way over to get to work.
It’s even more obvious to him through dinner, the moment grace is said and everyone tucks in people usually dive straight into their food accept Eddie and Buck, buck slides his plate closer to Eddie’s, Eddie slides his carrots over to Bucks place and Buck slides his Broccoli onto Eddies, Buck then proceeds to scoop all of Chris’s carrots and gives him an extra slice of Turkey, Chris beams up at Buck and puts his fingers to his lips in a shush motion giggling as he does it, Bobby looks at Eddie and Eddie is smirking but rolling his eyes, obviously knowing his son shares the same hate for carrots as himself but his son thinks it’s a secret just between him and Buck.
Bobby can’t help but Smile at the actions.
“Bobby? Earth to Bobby?” Chim starts waving his hand in his face.
“What?” he questions looking to Chim.
“Athena asked you a question you were staring into space,” Chim tells him.
“Oh sorry! What was it?” he asks grabbing Athena’s hand rubbing his thumb up and down her knuckles in apology.
“I asked if everything was okay?” She questions concern on her face.
“Oh yeah fine was just thinking about some forms I’m going to need to print off soon and fill out” Bobby smiles and kisses her hand.
“Seriously Bobby eat your dinner” Athena laughs.
“Listen to her boss before that alarm goes off and we have to leave” Hen shouts up eating so fast Chris and Buck are laughing at her.
“Slow down Hen you’ll give yourself a stomachache” Bobby warns her.
“Like hell am I letting this food go to waste, Buckaroo actually managed to make a decent meal and I’m not letting…”
Of course, that’s when they’re interrupted by the alarm.
“You had to jinx us didn’t you” Buck glares at Hen shoving a piece of turkey in his mouth as he stands, Eddie rises too and then looks to Chris.
“Let him finish his dinner he’s okay here with me,” Athena tells him, waving Eddie off, “if you guys aren’t back soon, I’ll take him to my place no bother”
“You sure?” Eddie questions.
“Of course,” She nods.
“Love you dude see you later,” Buck says leaning down to kiss Chris on the cheek as he rushes out Chris shouting his love you’s back.
Eddie leans down and kisses his son telling him to be good for Athena as Bobbies kissing Athena’s cheek.
There’s no way they aren’t together it’s like they’re a family unit already.
“You ready boss?” Eddie questions.
“Always,” he says in answer.
Maddie
Her brother had always been neurotic in relationships, not that he had long ones, sure there were many growing up but he was more of a love them and leave them type, his longest relationship before Abby was a girl named Taylor for 3 weeks and two days, she remembers how fixated he got with her.
It was Christmas time when he was with her and the sixteen-year-old had begged, borrowed and pawed his games to get her an over extravagant gift, it was all for nothing he’d broken up with her and moved on to another girl before the 15th December anyway but he’d got so fixated on making it the perfect Christmas for her.
She supposes the reason she’s thinking about Taylor is because he’s acting the exact same about Chris and Eddie, Buck had asked her to go shopping with him for everyone’s gifts he’d told her he’s put two months worth of wages away for everyone's presents and that made her practically bawk her eyes widening looking at her brother he didn’t notice he just walked away looking in the windows still talking like she was right next to him.
“Buck?” She questions running to catch up.
“Yeah?” He questions not looking at her still looking in the shop windows.
“Two months of wages?” She asks frowning.
“Yeah, you think that’s not enough?” Buck questions looking panicked.
“I think it’s too much buck that’s just over nine thousand?” She asks the nine thousand being said in a high-pitched voice “That’s more than three months of wages for me, it’s ridiculous how many people are you buying for?”
“Eddie, Christopher, Eddies Abuela and Tia, You, Chim, Bobby, Hen and her family, Athena, Athena’s kids, our parents I suppose, Eddie”
“You’ve said Eddie twice” She points out.
“I know the second Eddie isn’t for me, so you don’t have to worry about helping me with that one” He smiles.
“Why’re you buying Eddie two presents?”
“Well ones from me and ones from Chris but he wants to pick that out himself so I’m bringing him back here tomorrow”
“Okay, then you’ve got a hundred max per person like hell I’m letting you waste that much money when you could use it to get an apartment” She warns.
“I’ve got a place to stay” Buck frowns.
“Your living with Eddie and his son, I think you’ll wear out your welcome pretty soon”
“I thought I would too, but he asked me to move in” Buck smiles.
“He did?” She asks shocked.
“Well you know how we are, plus Chris wants me to stay so I help with the rent and bills and stuff plus another person around to look after Chris means everything is going great at the moment, more than great actually,” He tells her looking down blushing a little.
“Oh my god, are you going to buy him a ring?” She squeals.
“What?” Evan asks looking up shocked.
“That’s why you’ve saved so much? It’s for an engagement ring are you two together? That’s why your obsessing over Christmas and the perfect gift for him, why wouldn’t you tell me? I’m your sister, did you think I wouldn’t accept it? Because I’ve been dropping hints about how cute of a family you guys made for like five months”
“Woah! Will you relax okay, I’m not proposing to him” Buck tells her turning away.
“But you guys are together?” Maddie questions linking her arm through Bucks, looking up at him with a smile on her face she doesn’t miss the smile that makes its way onto his face as well.
“Yeah sort of”
“Define sort of?”
“We’ve not really talked about being together exclusively, I mean he could be out fucking other people for all’s I knew, we know we like each other, we sleep together every night if we're not on the night shift, we cuddle, kiss take care of Chris yet we’ve never really had the talk about exclusivity and all that stuff, Chris doesn’t even know yet”
“I swear men are idiotic” She sighs turning into a store that sells homeware and crockery.
“I resent that, who are we buying for in here?” He questions.
“I need a new TV stand so you can buy me that, Bobby loves to cook so maybe a cooking set?” She suggests.
“Maybe some good Tupperware/lunch box thing for Athena, Bobby’s always moaning she’s not really eating proper meals when she’s on shifts and she’s always eating fast food”
“Good idea, maybe add a little bit of costume jewellery to that so she doesn’t shoot you” Maddie laughs.
In the end, it takes half an hour for him to choose a gift for everyone on his Christmas list, arms were laden with bags they spend the next three hours combing every shop in the shopping centre and still he can’t seem to find a present good enough for Chris or Eddie.
She should have really spotted this sooner.
It’s obvious.
Chimney
“Friday buff nights are seriously making me fat” Maddie laughs as she grabs the ridiculous amount of food they’d just got delivered from the takeaway driver.
“Oh please I don’t think you’ve got a fat anything” Chimney laughs “Now stop fishing for compliments and pass me my food, we’ve not had a chance to eat anything all day that stupid alarm sometimes I just wanna take the sledgehammer to it” Chim laughs reaching over for his pad Thai
“Evan says the exact thing always moaning about the glorious food he’s cooking but doesn’t get to eat” She laughs sitting at Chimney’s coffee table and helping herself to the food too.
“Speaking of your brother you should have seen the ridiculous amount of presents he brought into the station to put under our tree today,” Chim says around a mouthful of food.
“Trust me I know I helped him pick them all out well everyone but Eddie he couldn’t decide on his” Maddie lets him know.
“So that’s why Eddie looked all hurt and sad when he sorted all the presents under the tree for Buck, he never saw his own” Chim says more to himself.
“Aww did he?”
“I’ve been teasing him about being a baby all day,” he tells her with a laugh.
“Aww Chimney that’s horrible” Maddie tells him off he looks shocked for a minute she usually likes him teasing his workmates.
“Oh come on the dude was all hurt because his workmate forgot to buy him a present, it was hilarious”
“Chimney, Buck didn’t forget to buy Eddie a present, nothing was good enough for Buck to give to Eddie”
“Why would Buck care about something being good enough for Eddie? Did he not just get everyone gag gifts? That’s what I did, I got Buck that game Buckaroo”
“He got serious presents for everyone he just wanted an extra special one for Eddie because they’re yenno?” She offers wiggling her eyebrows.
“They are?” Chimney asks his voice going high pitched.
“Don’t tell them you know” Maddie warns.
“Are you kidding I won’t tell them I know but this opens up so many avenues of teasing?” Chimney says practically ecstatic.
“I don’t know why I like you,” Maddie tells him rolling her eyes.
“Me neither Baby me neither” Chim laughs grabbing his wine glass and clinking it with hers.
Athena
It wasn’t the worse crash Athena had ever been to, it was chaotic at all crash sites, this one, in particular, was hectic because it had been a celebrity that caused the crash between the crashed cars and the cars stuck in traffic and the news helicopters circling above and the camera’s down on the ground for channels 14 and 99 everything was making her want to go home and have a glass of wine whilst Bobby rubbed her feet.
Instead, she was keeping the jackasses at bay it wasn’t a serious pileup most of the cars had got away with minor cuts and lacerations, the only major casualty was a woman who was still unresponsive as Eddie and Hen were working on her the frigging camera’s capturing the entire thing.
“The scenes been contained, everyone’s responsive no major injuries it’s only that girl’s mother, who’s being worked on, air evacuation will be here in two minutes,” Bobby tells her coming to stand at her elbow.
“Good” Athena tell shim with a small smile, just as she’s about to say something else cheers erupt as they get the mother stable the sobbing daughter rushes over to Eddie throwing her arms around his neck and plants a full-on kiss to his lips.
The camera crews all turn towards it like the vultures they are as Eddie tries to move the woman away but by the looks, he doesn’t want to get the woman’s mothers blood that’s currently coating his hands on the girl so he pulls his face away and starts to stutter out why it wasn’t right to do that to him.
“Buckaroo isn’t going to like that” Athena sighs looking from Eddie to the cameras.
“Nope,” Bobby says and then does a double-take “Wait what? You know?”
“Honey I’m a cop, I notice everything,” she tells him patting his cheek for good measure.
“Bucks at home with Christopher hopefully he doesn’t see the news” Bobby smiles down to her.
“We all know how jealous lover boy can get” Athena laughs moving to move civilians back as the air evacuation units get in close.
Hen
The last thing, Hen ever expected when there was a knock on her door at 6.30 in the night after a twenty-six-hour shift is to see Buck standing on her front porch wringing his hands his eyes red-rimmed.
“What’s wrong?” She asks immediately her mind flying to the team thinking something was wrong, buck had been off yesterday, he’s supposed to be in work in a few hours.
“I saw what happened on the news,” Buck tells her ask he allows himself to be moved to the porch swing he takes a seat and she sits next to him.
“Is it one of the team? Did they get injured? Eddie, Chim and the cap all seemed fine back at the station” She questions she’d only just left them her and Eddie had left an hour ago, Chim and Bobby still had another fifteen hours on shift.
“No I just, Eddie and I got into a fight and I left for work early and I didn’t want the captain or chimney to see me like this, you know what he’s like I’d just get teased, I didn’t know where else to go”
“What did you guys fight about?” She asks she’s not really following why the hell would Buck be this upset over a fight.
“I saw everything on the news the bus crash was horrible channel 14 kept a live stream going, Chris always watches the news to make sure nothing too bad’s happening and to see if he can catch a glimpse of his dad, well we did tonight and I saw him kiss that girl”
“He never kissed any girl Buck she kissed him, in gratitude for saving her mother’s life,” Hen tells him knowing exactly what he’s talking about.
“You’ve seen the size of him like he couldn’t have stopped her from kissing him” Buck scoffs.
“What did you guys fight about?” She questions.
“Him kissing her,” Buck tells her like it’s obvious and Oh… Oh well.
“Buck are you and Eddie? Together”
“Don’t know” Buck shrugs.
“You can’t seriously be thinking about ending things because some girl kissed him, can you? He pushed her away told her that wasn’t appropriate” Hen informs him.
“How do you deal with this?” He asks his eyes filling up with tears.
“With being gay? Liking someone the same sex?”
“With loving someone?” Buck asks his voice breaking as he says it, her heart shatters into a million pieces and she knew he was like family to her but right then and there she’d never known how much his happiness meant to her as well, god she wants to bang those two men's heads together.
“How long have you two been together?” She questions instead of voicing her desire to bump their heads.
“We’re not officially together, we’ve not told anyone, he’s scared Chris won’t like it or something we’ve been seeing each other for the better part of three months but every time I try and broach the subject of us he always finds a way to get out of talking about it like he’s scared of being with me or ashamed of me”
“Boy I can tell you right now he’s not ashamed of you at all, the way he talks about you when you’re not around the way he talks about what you do for him and Christopher, I thought it was admiration or a man crush I guess now it’s a crush, crush, trust me he loves you, when you find out you like the same sex for the first time it can be scary, he’s got a kid as well so he’s not just thinking about him he’s got to make decisions for the both of them and no doubt it’s scary as hell for him” Hen advises.
“You think I don’t know that? I’ve slept with ninety-two women, I thought I was straight until I suddenly couldn’t get him out of my head then he kissed me one night when I moved into his and it just kept happening, and happening every time I try to ask what this is the only answer I get is everything before he changes the subject”
“Well then you asked, and he’s given you his answer”
“Everything? How in the world does that constitute an answer to what this relationship is?” Buck asks his voice rising a little.
“Buck a relationship doesn’t have to have labels like boyfriends or girlfriends or partners, he’s told you what you mean to him and his answers everything you mean everything to him, you’ve just got to give him time and show him what you want if he wants that too it doesn’t matter about labels”
“I just wanna know where I stand, I want to know if this is for keeps or it’s him just using me for fun?”
“I don’t think he’d ever do that to you, I don’t know anything about your relationship in private but I can tell from the way he treats you, the way he acts around you in work that whatever you mean to him is damn well more than a quick and easy screw”
“I should make my way to work,” Buck says standing up making his way to the steps down to the path, he turns and rubs the back of his neck not meeting her eyes.
She looks at him and just pulls him into a hug before he walks away, and he’s surprised but melts into it before saying in a scared voice “Nobody knows about us yet so if you could…”
“Boy get your ass out of here and get to work before you insinuate that I’d ever do that to anyone and make me slap you” She warns pushing him away from the hug and down her porch smirking as she does so.
“Thanks” He calls back as he gets to the bottom of the path.
“Don’t mention it”
Chris
“Why did Bucky leave crying?” Chris asks as he slowly but surely makes his way to the couch.
“Hey buddy what are you doing up?” Eddie asks wiping his own eyes with the back of his fist “He wasn’t crying” he tells him as he lifts him to sit on the couch next to him.
“I saw him from my window”
“He was just a little upset then he had to leave for work” Eddie lies.
“Was he upset because you kissed that lady on TV?”
“She kissed me and no why would he be upset about that?” Eddie asked puzzled.
“Because you're only allowed to kiss one person at a time, yours was mommy and now it’s Bucky, you’re not supposed to kiss anyone else,” Chris tells him.
“How do you know Buck and I kiss?” Eddie asks he knows his son there’s no point in belittling his intelligence,
“He sleeps in your room just like mommy used to,” Chris tells him with a smile.
“What do you think about that? Are you okay with me and Buck? Do you like him being here?” Eddie asks his breath held until Chris gives him a blinding smile.
“I love Bucky, everyone at school thinks I’m lucky to have two dads who are firemen”
“You’ve told everyone in school?” Eddie asks smirking his heart doing a sort of happy dance in his chest.
“Duh,” Chris tells him, and Eddie can’t help but pull his son in for a massive hug as the full-bellied laughter comes out of him it’s like a weight has been lifted from him like everything’s suddenly become clear to him.
Everyone
Everyone noticed the mood Buck was in even Chimney wouldn’t tease him, the dude was on three straight shifts without Eddie who was off with Chris, Buck didn’t go back to Eddie's apartment and judging by the constant ringing of his phone wouldn’t answer his calls.
It was Christmas eve the first shift Eddie and Buck would be on together, the 118 and their families were having a Christmas party, most people’s breaths caught in their throats as they saw Eddie come in for his shift with Christopher holding his hand.
They made their way upstairs where Chris immediately shouted for his “Bucky” Buck turned around from where he was pulling presents from under the tree and sorting them into piles for everyone to open today or take home.
“Hey little man I’ve missed you,” Buck tells him rushing forward to snatch Chris up and pull him into a massive hug.
“You couldn’t return my phone calls?” Eddie asks in a whisper, some people had to strain to hear others couldn’t hear at all.
“I had to find out from Maddie that you were sleeping in her place?”
Chris leans into Bucks's shoulder and whispers something in his ear that has Bucks eyes widening.
“He knows?” Buck asks.
“Yeah,” Eddie tells him with a smile.
“Is he okay with it?” Buck asks setting Chris down when he squirms to get down and go play with Harry.
Eddie just grabs Buck and pulls him in for a kiss, they’re met with whoops and cheers from around them people crying out ‘it’s about damn time’
“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Eddie tells him.
“I’m sorry I got so hung up on wanting to put a label on this I should have just shut up and let us be happy,” Buck tells him.
“You were right to push me” Eddie admits “I want to tell people about us, I want to worry about you when you rush into a building that’s burning down without them telling me to calm down and not knowing the reason I’m so on edge, I wanna be without all in, everything,” Eddie tells him.
“Thank god, because me too, everything” Buck confirms.
“I told you, you should have bought a ring” Maddie calls out making Buck and Eddie look over to her.
“You were going to buy a ring?” Eddie questions.
“No, I told her that was way too early” Buck laughs.
“Good I think I wanna be the one that proposes” Eddie laughs.
“Now see I think I want to be the one that proposes think we’ll have to argue about that sometime” Buck laughs.
“No more fighting, please? I like to sit on my couch without it smelling of Buck after a workout” Maddie says coming up and handing a hot chocolate to Eddie a massive smile on her face.
She pulls Eddie in for a hug whispering into his ear as she does so “Look after him or I’ll get Athena to shoot you” She says with a laugh.
“That’s something you’ll never have to worry about” Eddie laughs as he looks towards where Buck has wandered off and is showing Chris his present pile, which is way bigger than it needs to be.
“Hopefully for the rest of our lives”